


Casey's Valentine

by addie71



Category: The Faculty (1998)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-20
Updated: 2012-02-20
Packaged: 2018-03-13 16:50:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3389111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/addie71/pseuds/addie71
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Casey has a secret admirer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Casey's Valentine

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2012 C/Z Love Month. Big thanks and hugs to Honeyandvinegar for the beta.

Casey hated Valentine’s Day. Not that he wanted a girlfriend, oh, no. He’d had his eyes and heart set elsewhere for over a year. But he figured St. Valentine would rise from his grave before Casey would ever get a Valentine from the guy of his dreams. Well, thoughts like that would only make the longest day of the year even more interminable. So shoving aside visions of the flowers and other cutesy things that would be delivered to his female co-workers, Casey gripped the strap of his man bag and headed into the office.

He had been working in Columbus at 'Car and Home Owner’s Insurance' as a computer services tech, since shortly after graduating from college, eighteen months before. Because of the nature of his job, he was familiar with all the various departments and knew most of the other employees, at least by sight. And it hadn’t taken him long to discover Zeke Tyler.

Zeke, one of the actuaries for the company, was smart, friendly and gorgeous. It seemed like the entire office was attracted to him in one way or another. The bosses saw him as a rising star. The women, all ages, single or not, saw him as their next conquest. And the guys all wanted to be his best bud. Well, except for Gabe, the one other guy in the company that Casey pegged to be as interested in Zeke as he was. Judging by the way Zeke flirted back with the female staff, it was pretty obvious that he wouldn’t be interested in either Gabe or Casey.

With that depressing thought in mind, Casey arrived at his desk. He set down his cup of coffee and hung up his coat on the rack in the corner of his fairly spacious cubicle. He then stashed his bag in the bottom drawer of his file cabinet and turned to his ‘In’ basket.

There had been a few new work requests dropped off that he hadn’t had time to get to yesterday. Taking a sip of his coffee with one hand, he reached into the basket with the other. As he pulled out the papers, an envelope fluttered to the floor and landed at his feet. Startled, he stared for a moment at the big red letters emblazoned on the front, screaming out his name. He had a sudden flashback to high school. Years of dealing with bullies on a daily basis kicked in as he quickly scooped up the envelope and hid the front of it against his chest. He looked around for prying eyes and let out a little huff of relief as he noticed that that no one was paying attention. With his heart thumping in nervous anticipation, and not a little dread, he pulled the envelope away from his chest and, with shaking hands, opened it.

The card had been made on a computer. The front had an outline of a big red heart with the cheesiest poem he had ever read centered in the middle of it.

Roses are red,  
Your eyes are so blue,  
You’ve the face of an angel,  
I want to kiss you.

Casey snorted with disgust. He thought he’d left high school behind six years ago. He started to rip up the card unopened, but in spite of the excruciatingly bad poetry, curiosity won out as he opened it and peered in. A few hand printed words were scrawled on the inside, but no signature.

Sofia’s  
Tonight, 7:00  
Reservation in your name.

What the fuck? The printing was familiar; which was no surprise considering the number of work requests he had received over the past eighteen months. But who would have given him this? The female employees who had tried to flirt with him when he first hired in had given up on him when he didn’t flirt back. Stokely was the only one who knew that he was gay, though he was sure that the rest of the staff suspected as much. And if Gabe was interested, he surely would have approached Casey before this. 

Thinking about the message was making Casey panic. Was it a joke or was it for real? And if it was for real, did he want to go? He decided to focus first on who had sent it instead of why. If he knew that, he would have a better idea of what to do. Plus it might help to subdue the turmoil that the anonymous card had brought on. 

He was concentrating so hard that when Stokely’s head popped over the cubicle wall with her daily, cheerful “Good morning!” he jumped and almost fell over his chair.

“What’s got you all twitchy this morning?” 

“Nothing.”

“Oh, come on! You don’t normally jump like a startled rabbit when I pop up here. What’s going on?” Stokely was not only a great co-worker, but she had turned out to be a really good friend. If someone were playing a joke on him it wouldn’t be her. Plus she might be a help trying to figure out the mystery. He handed her the card.

“Well this is certainly interesting.” Stokely looked thoughtful, “Do you have any idea who sent it?” 

Casey shook his head. “Not a clue. Do you?”

“I think it’s from a guy.”

Casey was surprised. “What? Why would you think that?”

“Well, a woman would have bought a card, or at least wouldn’t have used such a terrible rhyme; and the message would have been written, not printed.”

Casey was relieved at her line of thinking, but still wasn’t convinced. “Maybe she printed it to try and throw me off.”

“I don’t think so. I’ve seen this printing before, and maybe you haven’t noticed, but only the men print their work requests. The women always write.”

Casey’s stomach began to roil and he started to sweat. “Do you know who it is?” he whispered, hoping for the impossible.

“Not, for sure, but I do have an idea.”

Casey almost choked on the word, “Who?”

“I’m not saying yet. I want think about it some more before I say anything.” She looked at the nervous young man in front of her. “It’s time to start work, hon. You need to focus on something else. Leave the detective work to me, okay?”

Casey hesitated, then nodded. He needed to relax and focusing on the job would be the best thing for that. “Okay,” he said and turned to the work requests he was still clutching tightly in his hand.

***

He was just finishing up a tough repair when he heard his name being called over the PA. “Casey Connor, please report to the front desk.” Being Valentine’s Day, there had already been quite a few pages to the front. The receptionists loved to embarrass the staff by letting the whole office know when they had been sent flowers or other gifts.

Glancing at the clock Casey saw that it was almost a quarter to ten. Getting involved in fixing Judy’s computer had taken his mind pretty much off of this morning’s card. But now, the surprise of being paged brought everything back with a rush. His stomach was starting to knot up again and he could feel his face getting warm.

“Oooooh, Casey!” Betty and Carol were drooling over the large, paper wrapped bouquet sitting on the desk. “Open it! We want to see!” Casey just shook his head, swept up the flowers and headed toward his desk. The protests from the girls at the front desk followed him through the double doors that separated the lobby from the rest of the office.

He walked as quickly as he could through the office, but could feel his face getting redder as he was assaulted by good natured calls and whistles. Stokely was standing by the door to his cubicle trying to push back a small crowd that was gathering there. “Come on, you guys; give him room to get through!” She was smirking as Casey set down the flowers.

Casey glanced up at all of the co-workers looking over the walls of his cubicle… right into Zeke Tyler’s amazing, liquid brown eyes. He was grinning and giving Casey a ‘thumbs up’ as everyone clamored to see his flowers. Fuck. Even though he knew that Zeke wasn’t interested, last thing Casey wanted was to have him think that he was dating. 

Blushing even more, he ripped off the paper covering. A beautiful cut glass vase was wrapped around a dozen red roses sitting in a cloud of baby’s breath. Oohing and aahing in appreciation, everyone began to demand that Casey tell them who had sent the gorgeous bouquet.

There was no way Casey was going to share that information with this crowd, but he opened the attached envelope and pretended to look at the card. “I don’t know,” he said. “The card isn’t signed.” 

After speculating on this interesting turn of events, the disappointed crowd dispersed and went back to their work stations; all but Stokely. She walked into his cubicle sat down. “Okay. What does it really say?” 

Casey frowned and read the card out loud. “7:00. Don’t forget."

All Stokely said was, “Interesting,” and walked back to her desk.

***

The rest of the morning passed uneventfully until just before his lunch break; when Casey heard his name paged again. Immediately, the large room began to echo again with cheers and whistles. He made his way to the front desk, embarrassed, but doing better than this morning. He admitted to himself that he was beginning to be more curious than nervous.

Betty was waiting for him with a big grin. She and Carol had come by his desk on their coffee break to see the flowers, but like everyone else, were disappointed not to find out who they were from. Now as Casey picked up the box from the local pizzeria she was hoping for better luck.

This time Casey opened the card and peered at it. _Enjoy, but save room for dinner_ , it said. 

“Well?” Carol asked as Betty raised her eyebrows expectantly.

“Sorry,” he said, “still no name.” 

He carried the box back to his desk. An even larger group had gathered, and Casey looked around to see Zeke standing there again, wearing the same mischievous grin as before. His co-workers were disappointed for the second time to hear that the pizza had come anonymously, but exclaimed in surprise when Casey opened the box to reveal a heart shaped pizza.

“Sharing that?” Stokely asked, peering over the wall when everyone had left. 

“Sure. There’s plenty here for two.”

Stokely brought over her chair and settled in close to Casey. “So what did the card say this time?” 

Casey told her. “You know, Stokes, I think this might be for real. Someone is spending a lot of money to send all this stuff. It could be a prank, but I don’t think so. I just wish I knew who it was. I’d hate it if it turns out to be someone I don’t like.”

“I think I know who it is.”

Casey’s jaw dropped. “Who?”

Stokely grinned, “What’s it worth to you?”

“Stokes! Don’t tease. Please?”

Stokely took pity on him. Dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, she leaned closer. “Zeke.”

“Zeke!” Casey jumped up, almost knocking over his chair. Then he clamped his hand over his mouth and looked around to see if anyone had heard his outburst. Seeing no one around, he sat back down and stared at Stokely. “Why do you think it’s Zeke?” 

“Well, he’s always flirting with everyone, but he never talks about going out. He never brings a date to any of the office parties and he mostly talks about books, music, movies and sometimes sports.” She hesitated then added softly, “And the way he looks at you when he thinks no one is watching.”

Casey was stunned. He sat for a moment taking in everything Stokely had said. Now that she had pointed it out, he realized that what she said about Zeke was true. Well, except the last part. “How do you think he looks at me?”

“His expression doesn’t really change, but it gets… softer when he looks at you.”

“You think so? Why haven’t you said anything before? You know how I feel about him.”

“Because I wasn’t sure about what I was seeing until today. And I didn’t want to get your hopes up if I was wrong.”

“What makes you so sure today?”

“I was watching him closer today. He was the first one over here both times when you were paged, and he made sure he had a prime spot to watch. Plus he seemed… nervous to me. Zeke is never nervous.'

“And then, there’s this,” she said. She flipped over an old work request form that she had left face down on Casey’s desk when she brought her chair over. “Now look at your card from this morning.”

Casey took the card from where he had hidden it in his bag, opened it, and put it down beside the paper on his desk. The printing matched that on the card exactly. Stokely ran her finger down the form to the signature: Zeke Tyler.

***

Casey couldn’t focus. He was done with work requests for the moment, and was trying to update his documentation for the weekly report to his manager, but all he could think about was Zeke. Was the anonymous sender really him? It didn’t seem possible, but everything just _fit_. But what if it wasn’t? He knew if he showed up at Sofia’s and it wasn’t Zeke he wouldn’t be able to hide his disappointment and that wouldn’t be fair to whoever else his admirer might be.

He was startled out of his reverie by the sound of his name over the PA for the third time that day. Another round of cheering and whistles went up, louder than ever. He glanced at the clock. Almost 3:30. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Carol was waiting this time. Grinning like the Cheshire cat, she pointed to the cookie bouquet on the desk. Seven heart shaped sugar cookies, frosted in reds and pinks, were visible through the cellophane wrapping. The one in the center had a big ‘Be Mine’ written on it. Casey opened the envelope and glanced at the attached card. _I want you to be mine tonight_. His heart gave a lurch, but he just shrugged and shook his head when Carol looked at him expectantly.

It looked like half the office was at his desk this time. Didn’t these people have anything better to do? But, in reality, he could understand their curiosity; after all he was a guy, one who never got anything at work, and he’d been paged three times on Valentine’s Day. 

This time, when he set down the bouquet, he looked boldly into the crowd, seeking only one face. When he found it, Zeke was grinning widely, but as Casey looked long and searchingly into his eyes, Zeke’s smile seemed to freeze and he _blushed_. Casey dropped his gaze and looked down at his desk while he struggled not to smirk. When he looked up again, Zeke was gone.

***

“Shit, Stokes, I think I’ve really screwed things up.” They were putting on their coats, getting ready to clock out for the day. By the time everyone had left his desk, pondering the mystery of Casey’s secret admirer, they were both too busy finishing up for the day to talk. Now though, Casey told her what had happened when he stared at Zeke earlier. “I know we’re pretty sure that it’s been Zeke sending me all this stuff, but what if _he_ doesn’t show up now?”

“Calm down, Casey. He’s interested in you. He made the first move. Why wouldn’t he show up just because you may have let on to him that you knew? He wants you to know. Maybe he even wanted you to figure it out. By showing up it means that you’re interested in him, too. Just relax, go and have fun tonight. And stop thinking before you talk yourself out of it.'

“Oh, by the way, did I tell you that I called Stan and we are going to Sofia’s tonight?”

“Fuck you, Stokes!” Casey replied as she laughed and got into her car.

***

Sofia’s was crowded. No surprise there; after all, it was the most romantic restaurant in town. Casey, looking adorable and about sixteen years old in his navy suit and red tie, nervously approached the hostess stand. It was a few minutes past the appointed 7:00 hour. He knew if he got there first and had to wait by himself for too long he might decide to just forget it and walk out.

“Reservation for Connor,” he said when the hostess looked up and smiled. “Do you know if my friend has arrived yet?”

“Let’s see,” she looked down at her list before smiling back up at him again. “Yes, we’ve already seated your party. This way please,” she said, as she led him into one of the smaller rooms.

Sitting in a cozy half moon booth in the corner, looking absolutely stunning in a charcoal gray suit and striped tie, studying the wine list, was Zeke Tyler. As Casey walked through the room he could see all the admiring feminine glances being cast at Zeke and couldn’t help an inward smirk knowing that Zeke was there for _him_.

As they approached, Zeke looked up and a smile as bright as the sun lit his face. “Casey! I’m glad you made it, man.”

Casey slid into the booth, heart in his eyes, as he looked into Zeke’s, “Me, too, Zeke.”


End file.
